We are among very few corrugators in the country who will be getting the FSC certification for sustainable packaging by the end of Oct-2021.
Nagpur Carbon Pvt. Ltd. was established in 1991. The group gradually expanded its footprint by opening Nagpur Packaging Pvt. Ltd. and Excel Cartons Pvt. Ltd. The companies are situated at three different locations of Nagpur on a sprawling 6.5 acres and have a conversion capacity of around 1500 tonnes of paper per month in total. In an interaction with Paper Mart, Mr. Manish Bansal and Mr. Ritesh Jain, Directors at Excel Cartons Pvt. Ltd. talk about the company’s manufacturing capabilities, challenges with regard to the quality of paper, current market situation, and future trends.
Paper Mart: Tell us about your company and manufacturing capabilities — monthly paper converting capacity and the key technologies you have in-house.
Manish Bansal: We introduce ourselves as the leading supplier of corrugated boxes in Central India. We started our operations in 1991 under the name of M/s Nagpur Carbon Pvt. Ltd. with an installed capacity of 250 tonnes per month. After 10 years, we expanded by opening another box unit M/s Nagpur Packaging Pvt. Ltd. taking the installed capacity to 500 tonnes per month.
In the year 2014, Excel Carton Pvt. Ltd. — a fully automatic corrugation plant was started by me with Mr. Ritesh Jain, who is also a second-generation entrepreneur managing a similar line of manufacturing corrugated boxes by brand Industrial Packaging Products successfully. Excel Cartons Pvt. Ltd. is the only company with a unique facility of having a combination of fluting namely Narrow/C/Broad/E flutes in a single line. It has an installed capacity of 1500 tonnes per month. Our brand — Industrial Packaging Products is a fully automatic plant having an installed capacity of 1500 tonnes per month located within the city limits on a sprawling area of 90,000 sq. ft.
We have a Komori Lithron (Japan) multi-color offset printing machine which offers a range of colourful boxes to our customers. Our multi-colour division is handled by one of the best printing techies of the town. We have an in-house honeycomb expander and lamination facility, and are the only one in Central India providing packaging solutions using paper honeycomb material.
All our companies are situated at four different locations of Nagpur on sprawling 6.5 acres land with a covered area of 80,000 sq. ft. The four companies, put together, have a conversion capacity of average 3500 tonnes per month with an approximate gross annual turnover of INR 100 crores.
As an expansion plan, we are coming up with one of the largest automatic corrugation plants in Central India with a capacity of 2500 tonnes per month which will be installed by January 2022 on a different location making it our 5th facility of production. This added facility will take our total capacity to 6000 tonnes per month. The running speed of the machine will be 200 meters per minute (fastest in Central India). Our new facility includes Donguang make 4 colour printer slotter rotary die cutter, high-speed auto gluing and stitching machine (this machine can glue 1 lakh boxes per day).
Currently, we are proudly associated with Haldiram’s, TATA Companies, Herbalife, Future Retail, Spacewood Furnitures, ABIS group, Briskfarm, Seagrams, Plasto, Flipkart, CIAN Agro, HNI (India), among others.
We have our own fleet of 20 trucks including 8 containers to supply boxes pan India. We are supplying boxes starting from western regions like Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Nashik to eastern regions like Kolkata, Jamshedpur, and Odisha; and from southern regions such as Vizag, Vijayawada, Hyderabad to northern regions Bhopal, Indore and Haryana.
We are among very few corrugators in the country who will be getting the FSC certification for sustainable packaging by the end of October 2021.
We are proudly associated with Haldiram’s, TATA Companies, Herbalife, Future Retail, Spacewood Furnitures, ABIS group, Briskfarm, Seagrams, Plasto, Flipkart, CIAN Agro, HNI (India) among others.
PM: What challenges do you face with regard to the quality of paper & paperboard? Please share some of your key expectations from the paper mills?
MB: Paper mills have improved the quality of paper and consistency in the supply of paper exponentially. Moisture content issue in the kraft paper is a major concern that needs to be sorted out by the mills. Erratic price fluctuations done by paper mills are a serious matter of concern for the corrugators. Since we are moving to very high-speed machines with a speed of 200 meters, we expect upgradations in rewinding and run ability of the reels from the paper mills.
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PM: With the ‘New Normal’ imposed due to the pandemic, what is the current market situation and what are your projections for the future?
MB: The worldwide lockdown to curb the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted each person mentally, physically, and financially. Many people have lost their jobs, and through the e-commerce concept, the new opportunity for small businesses like the supply of essential commodities, home delivery of food that requires boxes has helped us to remain in the business in this tough situation. Now, we are approaching normalcy and the festive season is around the corner where all the businesses will start their operation soon which will help us to increase our business. We are seeing approximately 40 percent growth in the current year.
The boom in e-commerce start-ups, especially in the food industry, has increased the demand for paper products and we are sure it will improve multi-fold in near future.
PM: Please share your views on the market trends and the demand drivers.
Ritesh Jain: The government has now imposed a ban on single-use plastic hence paper packaging is the best environment-friendly alternative. Also, the boom in e-commerce start-ups, especially in the food industry, has increased the demand for paper products and we are sure it will improve multi-fold in near future. Paper has been well accepted by the e-commerce industry as a replacement for the flyer bags and bubble packaging. The fruits and vegetables have started consuming corrugated boxes in large quantities. Top e-commerce players like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Nykaa are shifting to paper packaging which in turn has increased the demand for kraft paper. This is the first time that Indian paper is getting exported in many countries; hence, there will be more demand for paper in near future, which is a proud thing for all of us.
